For GOP, First 100 Days Have Been A Learning Process

Posted by Political Quarterback17pc on April 08, 2015

Nearly 100 days into their new majority, congressional Republicans have had a harder time than they anticipated proving they're ready to govern.

In the past three months, Republicans have sent doomed legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline to the president, failed to secure votes on a controversial bill aimed at banning abortions after 20 weeks and battled through a standoff over funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Republican lawmakers in both chambers were able to pass a budget blueprint, but that, too, was a contentious process that highlighted fractures in the party.

A major bump in the road appeared during the Homeland Security debate, in which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) found themselves in a stalemate, each waiting for the other to move first.

The ups and downs of the past few months have led even the reliably conservative Wall Street Journal to write a scathing review of the new GOP-controlled Congress.

“For McConnell and Boehner it’s been a learning process," said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. "In both cases the leadership realized it had to be much stronger."